Indeed, the rows of sugarcane that line Nampop’s farm are grown in a rare way–organically. According to Dr. Buapan, a professor at Khon Kaen University, only 0.05% of all produce grown in Thailand is done so without the assistance of chemical fertilizers. Read the rest of this entry »

In American society, we value a multitude of choices because choices mean freedom. When we’re faced with two choices, any normal Joe would choose the one that makes them happier. Yes, there is a certain anxiety we feel when we’re presented with too many decisions like where to eat, what career to take, what song to listen to and all the other choices we make on a daily basis. But choices are often indicators of development. For example, if you have more choices to a career, your economy is healthy. If you can choose to buy a tropical fruit in the still of Vermont’s winter, trade is active and the power of your dollar goes far. Being able to choose between 40 varieties of cereals gives us the power to design our diets. However, in a capitalist society, have we come to appreciate the quantity of choices more than the quality? I especially want to explore this question in terms of our everyday consumer related decisions.

Written and Photos by Tipakson Mapati, Prachadhrama News Net and Siriluk Sriprasit, Localtalk

Translated by Tipakson Manpati

Sugarcane is not only an important raw material for sugar industry. Nowadays it is more important concerning production of Ethanol fuel. The Ethanol is another means toward energy’s security improvement that many countries all over the world are focusing on, especially when the price of fossil fuel is soaring and will be exhausted from the earth by decades.

In the Northeastern Thailand, sugarcane has been promoted by the government as a commercial field crop for 30-40 years. Numerous rice farmers began cultivating sugarcane as their extra earnings. Read the rest of this entry »

The average Thai farmer is 51 years old. For every 29 baht that a farmer consumes, they produce 100 baht by themselves. In Esan, the rate is 36 baht and in southern Thailand, the rate is 3.6 baht. Yet the average farmer is 169,597 baht in debt to the BAAC. There are a total of 38 million rai of land for agriculture in Thailand, 8 million of which will be taken over by the BAAC for the next 9 years (indebted farmers will have that period of time to earn it back). The AAN believes that this land should be put to use by farmers, but that farmers need to demand this change. Corporations and countries from all over the Global North and Middle East are looking to buy up land in northeastern Thailand.

The uplands surrounding Ban Dong Dip, Phon Thong district, Roi Et province is prime real estate for these kind of investors looking to buy or rent cheap land to produce rice or biofuel crops. Though this land was forested until somewhat recently, it’s red clay soils are now planted with sugarcane, cassava and corn. On July 28, the AAN farmers group in Ban Dong Dip currently working on organic practices for sugarcane and cassava hosted a concluding meeting on the past six months of activities. The AAN has worked on and off in this community for more than five years, and P’ Mao – a network staff member based in Khon Kaen – continues to facilitate the group’s learning process for organic techniques. Read the rest of this entry »